Namaste! Finally in Nepal!

 Namaste! Ke Cha? (Hi! What's up?)
I can't believe that I am finally here in Nepal! Our travel days were pretty brutal. We left training camp in Wisconsin at 6:30 pm on Monday and we got to our hotel in Nepal in late afternoon on July 4th. We had a 7 hr flight from Chicago O'Hare to London Heathrow. 2 turned 4 hr layover because they lost a wheelchair passenger and we had to wait for them to find him before we could leave. 8 hr flight from London to Delhi, India. That flight was very different. All announcements were bilingual. The elderly travelers were served their meals first as a sign of respect. The food was Indian food. As we left we were coated in coconut incense air freshner to cleanse us. 6 hr layover- slept on the floor. 2 hr flight from Delhi to Kathmandu (aka KTM- its shorter to type and i'm rushed for time).
The moment we looked our the window and saw  Nepal we were speechless. It is incredibly gorgeous here. It is very lush outside the city, and even inside the city is very colorful, albeight covered with  trash. KTM is definitely a city. On our second day here we visited a Buddist temple/ tourist site nicknamed the  Monkey Temple because it is so overrun by them. They were all very active which made for great pictures. You have to be careful not to provoke them or they will attack. One of my friends got a flying hug from one of them and then he nibbled on her skirt. We were pretty shocked to see how big KTM is. From the top of the mountain where the temple is you can look out and see what looks like millions of houses. We also visited a Hindu temple the next day were they were holding cremation ceremonies and smoking lotsssss of hashish (pot). We also went into the business district to see the Kumari, a young girl believed to be the incarnation of the temple of Shiva. She is 7 years old and for the past 4 years she has appeared in this window every hour so people can try to make eye contact with her for good luck. its very somber. While we were in the business district, some of the people on my team and I chased down cotton candy vendors who looked to be about 6 years old. It was delicious, natural sugar cane and it turned our tongues NEON pink. The Nepalese do church on Saturday so the next day we got to go to the largest evangelical church in Nepal, also the home church of our 3 translators. It was amazing to be able to worship with them. One of the songs also had English lyrics that we recognized from the tune of the piano and drum set. They also provided us headphones with a translator on the other end for the sermon which was amazing. Everyone removes their shoes and sits on the floor during the service. They also use flags as a form of worship. They had squatty potties (a dirt hole in the ground)- no western toilets for us! Another great thing about visiting these places is that we are allowed to leave the 2 block radius around our room. Everywhere we go we go in groups of 5 with at least 1 college age Staff Discipler. Everywhere you look in the city there is some kind of animal. I almost stepped on a dead cat twice! There are also an abundance of dogs, chickens, and cows. The roads here are ridiculous- no sidewalks. Everyone walks in the street, and everyone drives wherever they fit, and they can really squeeze into some tight spaces. Along with the cars there are rickshaws (bikes with carriage-like things for passengers), small taxis, and large buses. Lots of pedestrians too. And the trash just gets thrown on the curb which leaves a pleasant aroma of incense, food, and decomposing waste. It's also really loud here. They really like to use their horns, not in a "you cut me off" way but more of a "hey how's it goin" kinda deal. Its never quiet here. Even in the morning, you can here horns, dogs, bells, people, and lots of music. This one store that we walk by on our way to where the bus picks us up always has Adele playing, nice touch of home. Because we are staying in the tourist district there are tons of shops. The conversion rate is great too- 87 rupees for 1 dollar. Every night we go out to dinner on a budget of 100 rupees each- crazy. We love to eat momo (pot sticker like dumplings with fried curried filling like buffalo (my favorite), veggies, or chicken), tukba (soup), dahl fry (spicy corn chowder), nan (fresh pita bread), and some type of non-water liquid. You can't drink any water here that hasn't been boiled so we drink a lot of tea. The rest of the team likes the cocacola's too, but because they are sooooo sweet with real sugar they practically rot my teeth out so i don't get them.  Yesterday we got to visit an orphanage for children who's parents are in prison. In Nepal, the children can come live with the parents in prison but then they can't go to school, so they prefer to go here instead. There were 15 boys and 1 girl, all under age 16. We had a great time playing soccer, making balloon animals, and swapping dance moves with them. Most of them spoke English because in the more developed parts of KTM it is part of the curriculum. Today we did our first street evangelism. What a typical street evangelism looks like is us prayer walking for 10 minutes, shouting "Naatch Herna Ownoose" (Come watch our drama!" through the streets of the village, making a big riot gathering in the performance venue, then we go through and each skill group does 2 of their routines. Afterwards we disperse through the crowd and talk to the people about Jesus. Not trying to force it down their throat, but just sharing what we know. In today's case, we had to rely heavily on our translators bc very few of the approx. 500 people that gathered knew English. We were very excited to find a small church in the village today who invited us in for milk tea, a team favorite. A huge blessing. In our downtime, we like to go explore and go shopping. I have done a lot of bartering in the past couple days for souvenirs and clothing. The typical pair of gypsy-style Nepali pants is only 350 rupees- a great deal & super comfy. Lots of fun colors too:)
Please keep our team in your prayers too! Because it is monsoon season, it rains every day for anywhere from a 30 minute downpour to a 7 hour rainstorm. This rain is unlike anything i've ever seen before. Bc we are constantly wet, several of my family members have colds. We all beat jet lag in record time, but the daily grind is starting to get to us. We are in bet with a forced lights out typically at 10 pm with a strict wakeup time at 7 am. Our days are so busy though that we get very tired. A bunch of people are also very homesick or overwhelmed by the intense culture shock. 2 of our 11 dance skill group members have managed to dislocate their knees during dancing, which can make performances a little rough on the edges. Pray for their quick healing and lack of pain, as we have only 23 packs of ice left for the rest of the summer with no place to buy more.  We also have a lot of memorization to do this summer- Bible verses, teachings, and tracts to present. This can get really stressful- our first test is on Tuesday. Please keep that in your prayers. We are all getting along really well though which is great! God has really blessed us with a great team. Pray that we will continue to have an absence of sickness on our team. The food seems to be agreeing with us very well, which is a huge blessing. The language barrier becomes more and more evident as we venture out of KTM, which at times can be frustrating and discouraging.

I can't imagine being anywhere but here right now. Nepal has grown on me very quickly. I am healthy, extremely happy, and very blessed to be here! I can't believe that 2 weeks have already flown by and we only have 4 more weeks left here. Thank you so much for reading. I can't wait to show you guys my pictures- i have almost 300 from the past 2 weeks. I love all of my family and supporters so much. Dhanya Bad (Thank you!) & God Bless You!

Shout out to my lovely sister Mariclare- i don't know if I'm gonna have internet again before your birthday so HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love you a bunch little sis:)